Surprise!

Christmas can be full of surprises. It certainly was for the Invercargill, NZ, woman who pulled on a Christmas cracker at lunch and won a half-decomposed (dead) mouse. "It ruined my appetite for the rest of the day" Betty Lawrence, the (un)lucky woman told the local newspaper The Southland Times.
On the brighter side, police in the US were called to a shopping center to investigate reports of two men handing out $100 notes. It was true and rather than causing a scene, it was an orderly event. The men, brothers, according to Reuters, do it every year, and wished to remain anonymous. (This reminds me of something I read recently about a Secret Santa who had done something similar, handing out money to people who seemed to need help. He had done it anonymously for years, but died recently. His work is being continued by others - not sure if the two mentioned above are part of that continuation).
Also on the surprise list - I was downloading some files from the motel where we are currently staying and reached a speed of 650Kb a second! Of course, the other surprise is that we are staying here in part for the air-conditioning - which we haven't yet had on - something to do with The Chronicle's headline: Cold snap takes the heat out of Chrsitmas. It has been described as "unseasonable weather".